Thursday, September 27, 2012
Which presidential candidate is truly pro-life?
Whbich presidential candidate is truly pro-life?believe it or not it is pro choice candidate barack obama, not pro life candidate mitt romney. read why?
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Monday, June 29, 2009
Broken Ankle
Well,on May 26, 2009,the day after Memorial Day, I headed out to work on foot,as usual. I was making my way to the bus stop when the same familiar hill that I always go down proved to be my undoing. I had just missed the bus but for some reason was still walking at a good pace. The next thing I knew my right foot slipped and I went down hard. I had failed to take into account that it had been raining the night before and the hill might be dangerous as a result. I immediately knew I had hurt myself badly because after I landed I pulled my foot out from under me and saw a terrible sight. I did not know that because of pain because I did not feel hardly any. Anyway,my foot just flopped to the right like a doll whose strings had been cut. I did not panic but immediately grabbed my foot and held it until it no longer did that. Due to not hardly feeling any pain I opted to call my mom instead of the ambulance. After all, why make an even hospital bill for my uninsured self when I did not have to. I called my mom and asked her if dad could come and get me and take me to the hospital. He could not. You see,my dad is very old and often does not feel very well at all. So,she called my cousin Michael instead. He agreed to come get me. So, I laid on that small wet hill exactly where I fell until my cousin could come and get me. That took about an hour because he had to go and pick up my brother first. You should know that all the time I was laying there by the side of the road on that wet grass not a single person on foot or in vehicle stopped to see if I was okay. That is just further confirmation of what the Bible says. "In the last days the love of many shall wax cold". So true,so true. Anyway,eventually my cousin arrived and he and my brother helped me to get into his very nice brand new car. I still was not feeling much pain. We arrived at the hospital and they got a wheelchair and wheeled me into the emergency room. I had to check any weapons or metal objects I had at the guard desk. They included a large pocket knife, a box cutter,and channel locks. Hey,my job involves cutting stuff and a little maintenance work sometimes. So,finally the nurse sees me and I ask her if she thinks it is broken. She says yes,based on the way my ankle is deformed. Eventually, an x-ray technician takes x-rays. A doctor looks at them and tells me that I have broken two bones in my right ankle. The two on each side but not the main one. On a scale of one to ten the breaks are a two or three. He indicates that because the bones did not break the skin and my foot did not twist all the way around like he told me his did when he broke his ankle. They take additional x-rays to see if I damaged my ligaments and tendons. Those x-rays involve them painfully twisting my foot in order to see properly. They determine that I have damaged ligaments but not tendons. Then,they put a splint on my foot and send me home until the swelling goes down some and they can perform surgery a week later. I think they just gave me a prescription for Hydrocodone,a strong narcotic, at that point. I had not used all or much of it when my cousin brought me back to the hospital for surgery on June 3, 2009. The surgery was to put a plate on one of the broken bones to keep my foot stable but not to repair the ligaments. My doctor said they would heal on their own. I hope he is right. So,their intention is to put me so far under that I would wake up with a tube in my throat. I ask them if they can just numb me up and do the surgery while I am conscious instead. They agree. They give me a spinal block and sedatives and then wheel me into surgery. By the time I got to the operating room I could not feel anything below my waist and was feeling pretty mellow. I did not have an ounce of nervousness in me. While I am talking and even joking with them they give me more sedatives through the mask they had on me,I think. As they are lifting my leg to prepare it for surgery I marvel and ask is that my leg because I could not feel it at all and I was kind of loopy. Soon after that,I pass out. I awake to find them putting the finishing touches on my surgery. They wheel me to my room and after a while the numbness wears off. However,before that happened,the nurse had always got me started on some drugs. It was to no avail. The pain hit like a freight train anyway. I am talking about pain that is a 7 or 8 on a scale of one to ten with ten being screaming your freaking head off. So,they give me morphine and other drugs to no avail. The pain won't stop and the nurse marvels at that. Finally,she breaks out the really strong stuff. Dilatid or something like that. After a while,that actually kicks in. I attribute my drug resistance to years of being a chronic pain sufferer and taking over the counter pain meds like acetaminophen (think Tylenol) and naproxen sodium (think Aleve) for years. The pain was mostly from arthritis and tendon damage in the same right foot whose ankle I broke. Ironic,eh? So, I spend the night at the hospital and the next day they take my catheter out. A catheter they must have put in after I passed out in the O.R. Thank God it was after. It was not terribly uncomfortable it being removed though. I guess you could say the nurse had a gentle touch. Heh. Anyway,they determine that I can go home if I can make it up and down steps by myself using crutches. I refuse to do that because I am afraid of falling and for a while it looks like I might not be allowed to go home. Finally,they agree to let me do it with assistance since my brother would be assisting me when I went home. I finally leave but it is very late after my brother gets off work. He works in the same hospital I was in. That is the main reason I chose that hospital in the first place. So, my cousin comes around 10:30 p.m. and they do not even have the paperwork ready. We were not too happy about that. On top of that,my crutches had been left in the room where they determined if I would be able to get up and down steps and that room was locked. So, the nurse had to get my paperwork ready and we had to wait for a very slow guard to come up and let the nurse into the room so she could retrieve my crutches. I could not use just any crutches because I am about 6ft and require the ones for big guys. So,my cousin left and came back when we were really ready to leave. I went home with a cast and that remained on until June 17,2009. On that day my cousin brought me to the hospital's outpatient clinic and they removed the cast and replaced it with a boot. They also removed seven stitches from the surgery. I had fear that that was going to hurt but it only was a little more uncomfortable than the removing of my catheter. It actually involved a little pain unlike the former. So,that is where I am now. I am wearing a boot until my next visit to the clinic on July 15, 2009. Until then,I am not supposed to put a lot of weight on my foot but I have anyway. I am now able to put quite a bit of pressure on it while standing,unlike before the surgery. I also have to and have been doing daily exercises to stretch the ligaments. That is working because when they first took my cast off I could barely move my foot but now I can move it very well though with some pain. They told me to keep the boot on at night for the first two weeks but I left it off at night before then with no ill consequences. At this point,I am not really taking any of the medicines they sent me home with except aspirin. I cannot have any blood clots forming due to not being able to be real active. Sure,I get around on my crutches pretty well and scoot around in my computer chair a lot but I still spend most of my time sitting or laying down. I have resumed going back to church but that was only after I was able to get up and down stairs by myself. First,I did it with two hands on a rail and by hopping from step to step but then I quickly graduated to one hand on the rail and the other on my crutches while hopping from step to step. So,that is where I am today with this injury. I will be glad when I go back to the doctor on July 15, 2009 and find out what the prognosis is in terms of how long it might take me to recover. I have been off work since my injury and really would like to go back to work at least on light duty. That won't happen until I am at least able to walk though. I hope that is soon. In the meantime, I hope to live off of food stamps and any other assistance that the state throws my way. Also,I am counting on the state to help take care of my massive hospital bills. Like I said, I am not insured. Nevertheless,I have applied for state aid and expect to be getting some soon.
Take care and God bless,
Anthony
p.s. Keep me in your prayers,if you pray.
Take care and God bless,
Anthony
p.s. Keep me in your prayers,if you pray.
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